too. very important. >> going to set the tone for tomorrow. coming out 10:00 tonight. >> absolutely. >> that will do it for "power lunch" this day, simon. >> "street signs" begins right now. all right. welcome to "street signs." because i promise you folks we have got a huge, cannot miss show, today. boone pickens is here slamming america's lack of energy policy. the ceo of cantor fitzgerald tells you if he thinks europe will bring the world now. nordstroms breaking news right here. is congress killing your portfolio? warren buffett thinks so. it's a big, huge big show, mandy. >> indeed. notable market reaction. the dow wiped out an early 112-point decline and briefly went positive just a few moments ago. if it can finish higher it would be the first time this year that

the dow has been able to erase a mid session triple digit watch i loss. we're watching. as for the nasdaq it is still the biggest loser of those three and on track for a fifth straight down day. let's check in with bob. let's check in with rick, bob. i want to move away from what's happening here at home for a couple of seconds because i'm hearing increasingly of u.s. companies commentary of china and starting to get the feeling that china will pull down earnings and guidance here this quarter. >> we heard it of levi's and marriott in asia. i think the problem that we have got here today is it looks suddenly like everything's all right because the dow went positive but it isn't. market's got a defensive tone to it. i want to point out health care is your market leadership along with some very defensive names in the consumer staples area.

mcdonald's as well doing well today. i don't consider that spectacular. looking at the tech group, they're to the downside and really none of them positive for the day. >> thank you so much. great to have you back, by the way. i know you enjoyed your trip overseas. rick santelli, tell us why are bond traders shrugging off the loss of the morning? is the story not all it appears? >> reporter: this is fascinating. we saw a 26,000 drop to 350. lowest level on weekly initial claims going back to march of '08. call it four years. however, the labor department was pretty clear. distortions that normally are seasonally adjusted for auto plans summer shut downs were exaggerated. how do we know this? one hand, a four-year low. nonseasonally adjusted lows today, up 70,000 a net number shy of 440,000 which just so happens to be the second highest read of the year. >> always good to have you

explain it to us. thank you, rick and bob. all right. certainly been ugly for the markets and i know we're up a little bit right now but if we drop today, the dow would be down six straight sessions. why not? right? you have european fears out there. feuding political parties here set to drive us over a fiscal cliff an hundreds of unwritten rules and regulations over small business. joining us now is shawn matthews, ceo of cantor fitzgerald and company. shawn, it is not precisely in the wheelhouse but as ceo, is there a message to send to our audience given everything that i just listed about why they should have any confidence at all investing any money right now anywhere? >> well, certainly the marketplace is going through a difficult environment but in reality, we are going to be here for a while. we are in a low growth, low interest rate environment for an extended period of time which means you will have a series of risk on and off trades and

really becomes a trading environment to some degree but by and large when you look at corporations today, they're in substantially better shape than they were a couple of years ago. they have cleaned up the balance sheets. the earnings are relatively strong. we go through ups and downs as far as revenue growth and corporate balance sheets are better than they have been in a substantial period of time. >> making a case for stocks? >> i think stocks are relatively cheap here so i would be looking to put money in the stock market depending on buying a dip so you want do get in there and look for opportunities, look for interesting companies with good revenue growth because balance sheets are strong. >> all right. quickly, shawn, i want you to listen to the quote on cnbc this morning of alan simpson about the fiscal cliff. he was on "squawk box." listen to this. >> had less revenue coming in to this country since the korean war. 15.2% of gdp. when's fooling who in this game?

it's madness. it's numbers. it's math. we don't do wizardry. we do math. >> what do you think about that, shawn? do you agree with alan simpson? >> i agree. we are going to have to tighten our belt straps. we have to come to the reality that too much leverage is bad. so, it's going to take a while. we have gone through external shocks over the last couple of years we had to deal with and now it's about repositioning america, tightening our belt and making sure that we're fiscally responsible. >> i want to come in on this. recently we have been talking about a number of towns here in the united states going bankrupt. we're going to be talking about this more later on in the show but understand you see opportunities in the muni market. >> i think you have to be concerned about it but the municipal space is a credit space for the first time so the muni space is doing the credit work, understanding the receipts

coming in and putting your money to work in strong municipalities. >> like? >> i'm sorry? >> like areas in particular that you're interested in this terms of the muni market? >> i think it depends on the environment that you're in but certainly some of the high yield space is an interesting play right now. i think we have a scenario where people have gotten out of sectors that they should still be looking at that are toll roads, et cetera. places that people have moved away from. we should be looking at with good return profiles. >> can i ask you about your take on the u.s. economy overall? you are hiring aggressively and expanding but not here. it's overseas. i thought overseas was the problem. >> overseas is definitely the problem and still a european sen trick arena for a year or two so europe has its issues. we know that. they'll continue to be out there for an extended period of time. the dollar continues to rally here and we will have to from an

american perspective, we are going to have to tighten the belt and understand where we are in the fiscal responsibility. >> thank you, shawn, for your time. is the gold rush finally over after ten-plus years of nearly steady gains? here's a chart of gold. and of course we had notable exceptions. for example, in the financial crisis and quite a liquidation of pretty much every asset out there. the dollar is strengthening and gold suffering as a result. here to discuss further is precious metals strategist. is gold good run over at least for the time being, george? >> i don't think so. not only do i not think so i'm always encouraged by a big selloff because that's usually an opportunity to add to gold portfolios or at least those portfolio that is want to have a 5% or 10% gold because of the

probability that we will have inflation. now why are we going to have inflation? we may have a stimulus later on in this year in after it's election year and not only that, but of course, our snail pace economic recovery is going to probably make the fed act after yesterday's performance in the market. >> so you don't think that gold as it is right now on the decline is signaling no qe3? >> well, i think a lot of people misunderstand gold. gold is not a political haven. it is not an answer to stock market selloff. gold is an answer of devaluations of currencies and if you live in countries like greece or spain or portugal or italy, or other countries, argentina where you might have currency problems, you would want to own some dollars which is why the dollars are strong. and gold which is convertible, liquid and portable. >> the u.s. dollar is getting stronger and more expensive.

>> yes. >> in u.s. dollar terms. can gold and the dollar gain at the same time, george? >> yes. that's my whole thesis. now, of course, today, you had the yen gaining versus the euro. the yen put on a strong performance and made it more expensive for the japanese to own gold and the japanese are pretty big buyers of gold normally. so, gold has had a number of pressures. you have had the pfg problem. you have had mf global problem. you have fund liquidations, margin calls and so -- >> george? just real quick. ten seconds, 12 months from now, what will the price of gold be? >> if we have the stimulus i'm looking forward to on three continents after tomorrow's chinese figures seeing lowering of interest rates there, also, i would think that merrill lynch might be right about much higher price for gold back to the old highs of maybe 1900.

>> so you say bring it on. thank you very much for joining us. the energy conundrum. wind and solar is going broke because you can't make money. where exactly does the u.s. and the world get our power needs from? maybe whale oil? we're going to talk about it with the energy guru himself, boone pickens next. bankrupting america. heading to the town that's been bankrupt since the reagan white house and find out what really happens when your town goes belly up. thought of -- fidelity. now you don't have to go to a bank to get the things you want from a bank, like no-fee atms, all over the world. free checkwriting and mobile deposits. now depositing a check is as easy as taking a picture. free online bill payments. a highly acclaimed credit card with 2% cash back into your fidelity account. open a fidelity cash management account today and discover another reason

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let's let's take a look at crude. it was down earlier. it is currently unchanged. you can see that it erased the losses because there are increased sanctions against iran. something we're watching. this is kind of like wiping out the bearish mood that was there earlier because the iaea said it puts a lid on oil prices. of course, it may still do that. speaking of oil and energy, all right, here's the basic bottom line. patriot coal went bankrupt a few days ago. so coal is struggling. people are fighting natural gas and fracking. you have nuclear and nearly impossible to build an wind and solar uneconomic and companies are going bust left and right which leads us to where do we get our energy needs for the next 20, 30, 40, 50 years? whales?

who knows? maybe boone does. boone pickens joins us and being tongue in cheek but, you know, i called you yesterday. we talked about coal. i understand it's a dirty business. people don't like it. it hurts the land. but we need it. it's still the biggest source of power for power plants. what do we do to meet the energy needs for 30 years? i don't see where it's coming from. >> let me -- the way you phrased that, it sounds like i'm opposed to coal and that's not so. listen. i'm all american. i'm a coal guy. i know that 50% of our power generation comes from coal. and we have to have it. we will have it. and i'm for the industry. natural gas, no question, has gotten very, very cheap. which has hurt coal. but that day will change sometime i think in fairly near future. and, you know, but we look at wind. wind cannot get off the ground

unless natural gas is $6. the reason is because a price of the power off the margin and natural gas is a marginally power so natural gas is $3 so it's half what it has to be to do some good on wind. >> maybe that's the plan then, boone, right? coal goes offline and need natural gas more for power plants and increase the price of natural gas which could then make wind and solar more economic. do you believe there's a war on coal right now? >> oh, well, i mean, if you get natural gas up to $6, well then, coal works just fine. so right now, natural gas has been priced below coal. and it's caused them a lot of problems. natural gas should go to the best, most efficient use which is the transportation fuel. natural gas should go to the

heavy duty trucks. it's now selling at $2 a gallon cheaper than diesel. so, is it going to happen? it's going to happen. i promise you it is happening right now. >> natural gas has had a pretty good run. in your hedge fund or personally, would you buy coal stocks anything? the stocks down 80% to 90% if not on the pink sheets. do you have any interest in investing in coal or going away? >> we have made a lot of money in our hedge fund on coal in the past. we're out of coal. when do we come back in to it? i haven't had an analyst to say it's time to buy coal. there will be but it will be when natural gas moves up. by the end of the year, i think you see natural gas $4. today looking at it $3. >> interesting. we're just moving away from energy for a moment. you can talk on pretty much everything including the macro

picture. i want to bring up a sound bite of earlier on on "squawk box" and with regards to the fiscal cliff. let's listen to ow erskine bowles describes it. >> these deficits are like a cancer and over time they will destroy the country from within. >> is there a cure for this cancer, boone? >> well, i think we've got to do something about our debt in this country but the way to come back and get the country going economically is get on your own resources and we have resources to get on. no problem. see, if you look at the straits of hormuz today, there's 20 million barrels of oil moving out of there. you know how much of it comes to the united states? 10%. 2 million barrels. so here we are every day having people in afghanistan and iraq in harm's way to get 2 million

barrels of oil out of the straits of hormuz. we have 2 million barrels in the united states that today globally who has the cheapest energy? the united states does. we're today you're looking at $100 oil for brent north sea which is kind of a global price for oil and it's wti's 85. so you're 15% under the rest of the world. on natural gas, you're $3 and japan today you're $18. beijing, 15. qatar you're 14 and europe 14. so, here you are with a fraction. >> but, you know, becoming -- >> the way -- >> becoming completely energy independent is going to take a long time, i would imagine. meantime, what is your read on the u.s. economy and do you see a recession ahead for us? >> again, get on your own

resources. if you look at that countries around the world that are on their own resources they're doing very well. and so, you aren't going to get completely energy independent but the way to manage that is to put together canada, mexico and the united states and north american energy alliance. and then work with them because we can provide a market for their oil in to the united states. work together. we're friendly with them. we -- >> right. >> we have a good trade agreements with them. do that and get off of the opec oil. opec oil is 4.4 million barrels a day. >> real quick, boone. do you see a recession ahead say in the next 12, 18 monthings here in the states? >> well, you're looking at growth of what? 1.9 and you're on the edge of a recession. it's -- i would say i'm not going to call for a recession but slow, sluggish going for the

economy for the next year. >> i know, boone, you are dialed in to washington, d.c. right? you meet with members of both parties. okay? let -- we know the obama policies and what their thinking is on a macro level. if romney wins the presidency, how does that change the energy picture in america and how would you invest in energy assuming a romney win? >> well, i haven't seen romney's plan. he has -- he talks about energy and seems to understand it. but obama has said we need to get on natural gas but no plan. neither candidate has come forward with an energy plan. and when they do, we're going to look at it and we'll be quick to respond when we see the plan. >> are you disappointed in the republican party, as well? >> disappointed? in what way? >> disappointed. you said you haven't seen a plan of anybody. congress, who knows what they're

doing up there? we have talked about it. you're being way too nice on the show right now. yesterday you about chewed my head off. >> i did -- that's not true. sure, i've been disappointed in congress but who hasn't? don't they have 11% approval rating? it's horrible. you can't get anything passed. you know, i tried to get something on energy passed and all it was was get on your own resources and didn't cost the taxpayer a penny. well, that plan should have passed easily but we couldn't get it passed. >> we have ten seconds left. give us a target for oil. where are we going to be, say, end of the year? >> at the end of the year i think wti will be $100 and i think brent north sea will be 115, 120. i think you will have $4 natural gas but energy is going to move up. >> okay. we got to leave it there.

always a pleasure to have you on our show. thank you for talking everything including the kitchen sink which i did promise would be on the show today. >> not oklahoma state football. next time and then he'll be fired up. sears up nearly 60% over 6 months and are things about to head back down in doom town? clean up in aisle svu. super value down 45%. in fact, more than that right now as the supermarket in the express checkout to a buyout? "street signs" back after this break. mamama

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welcome welcome back. brian shactman here. take a look at shares of linkedin. last week the report of facebook to add some sort of jobs board, the stock beat up and analysts coming out in support of it. today channel checks say that things are strong with the jobs board and a few days before that, maintained by others. back to you. >> all right. thanks very much. look at this. super value. this stock is down, down about -- wiped out by about half earlier today. down 49.3%. an all-time low. company considering selling all or part of the business. struggling to pay off debt.

loaded the company up with debt. terrible credit rating. reported a big drop in earnings. name it, it's going wrong for supervalu. >> really dragging down safe-way, as well. so how about some booze, guys? constellation brands up about 4.5%. ubs said dekreent the recent run-up, more upside is near. and one more sunshine gem for you before you go. check out the biggest pink diamond ever. found in my beautiful home country of australia. it is the argyle pink jubilee diamond and found in a mine that was supposed to be cut down and only partially cut and it was donated to the melbourne museum, my hometown. >> anything else? >> no. an australian show. >> there we go.

that will be brief. >> just getting started here thigh's the end of it, too. two big retailers are here and they're ready to break news of a big deal. later on, with more and more cities filing for bankruptcy, we head to pennsylvania for a firsthand view of the ultimate worst-case scenario. "street signs" is back in a moment. this is must watch tv.

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time, first of all, take a look at sears holding. it is up here and down by 5.7%. >> yeah. talk here is that cleveland research american research firm coming out with concern about sales basically saying that, hey, worried about how the first two months of the second quarter tracked so you have commentary. jcpenney's numbers and research note coming out and may look lousy. >> incredible year to date changes there. meantime, our top state for business continues to improve with the next stock. >> texas industries. not texas instruments. texas industries. swinging to a profit. breaking a ten-quarter losing streak. they make construction

materials, et cetera. gains of an asset deal and texas industries up 13.2%. >> why don't we bring the u.s. listed shares of the big indian giant because the true story of global weakness hurting? >> disappointing quarter. basically here's what the most interesting thing to me on infosys is. they have had record number of clients and recorded a sales reversal because a big company in europe, they wouldn't name it, canceled the contract. a window of europe contracting. >> i.t. spending contracting, exact pli. >> exactly. infosys with a big contract canceled. >> been the biggest decliner on the nasdaq 100. looking for a cheap hotel room? >> marriott as well as some of the other names sliding. citigroup came out with a note

saying that marriott's increase in revenue per available room under. you have them declining. stock still up 30% year to date. even with today, a dog gone good year and trying to get a hotel room in new york, you know how tough it is. these rooms are full often now. >> they really are. finally, procter & gamble. on the rise today, right? >> clearing the way for an investment by bill ackman. his persian square talking about taking more of a share in proctor & gamble. ending on good news. >> hopium here. >> widely owned, up 4%. they make potato chips or something? >> everything. >> they make everything. >> i drive a proctor & gamble car. >> the chips are essential. we have got an exclusive for you. retailers nordstrom, top shelf and top man teaming up.

they will be at 14 nordstrom stores across the country starting in september. joining us now from a top shop in new york city, phillip green and pete nordstrom. the president of merchandising. both of you, fantastic to have you on the show. ph philip, what's behind the thinking of teaming high end with middle end and why do you think this is going to work? >> i think, you know, we have spoken to quite a lot of retailerser and american people over the last year and felt by after talking to the people nordstrom had the most compelling proposition in terms of we're going to be unique in their portfolio. both online and in the 14 stores initially. we create all our own product. we have 15 inhouse designers. they have a fashion customer and i felt that it was a very good fit of being not in a very

crowded marketplace there, specific. we could create merchandise and design merchandise specifically for nordstrom and that's what we will do. >> pete -- >> limited edition merchandise. >> and pete, why did you choose topshop and topman? >> well, when you're a retailer, i think obviously you're interested in trying to bring in the most compelling product you can and there's a constant editing process that happens and our job to try to find newness to interest the customer, and we have long been big admirers of topshop and topman and buyers in london visited the stores and it looked like an opportunity for us to discuss doing business together, we took that chance. >> you know, pete, when you look at individual products, more stores are going to more personalized offerings to get customers in. how much more does that cost for a company like nordstrom? does it squeeze your margins to come up with more individualized

goods? >> no, i don't think so. i don't think our goal is to have exclusive product for the sake of being exclusive. we want the best product there is out there and most often that's stuff available at other places. in the case of topshop, topman it is not districted in the u.s. and well-known so it's really good situation for us and the discuss merles. >> pete, for a macro pulse in terms of where you're seeing strength, i mean, obviously kind of at the high end and teaming with a middle tier brand here. i mean, where do you feel the most strength in terms of consumer spending is coming from right now? >> well, actually, we are seeing solid business across the board right now and the area improved the most in the last year or two is mens which is probably the slowest to come out of the recession their time. we have had good results in the most fashion oriented product, particularly in the luxury and designer parts of it but i would say across the board. it's been pretty strong for us.

>> sir philip, it's brian. the same question about europe. we talk often about the problems on the continent, also, some of the concerns about the uk. how are you guys holding up and are you worried about the situation that europe is in? >> well, i mean, i think you'll be foolish not to be worried but at the same time we have a very international business. we have a big business in the uk and trading in 32 countries. in terms of uk business, it's without question. our fashion business is holding up exceptionally well. i think as pete said our men's business is in double digit comp sales against last year so we're very pleased with that and we have got a position in the market that we have established ourselves as a fashion leader. we do have new merchandise virtually every week of the year and i think people today want to buy now, wear now who are interested in that merchandise. we have got that as our

audience. >> pete, not just topshop and topman, i believe you have entered in to other strategic partnerships recently. for example, hope look, peak. what other partnerships might you be working on? can you tell us? >> well, it's never been part of the plan to set out to try to land some of these partnerships specifically. it's all happened must have r much more organically in response to our customers so for us, you know, it was a very logical step and a very complimentary step for us to work with topshop, topman because philip's right. they deliver fashion very quickly. they turn fast. the newness and the excitement of the new fashion is super compelling to our discuss merles. >> to both of you, fantastic to have you on the show. best of luck with your partnership. still ahead, is your money headed over the fiscal cliff? and a cold, hard look at what happens when your town literally goes belly up and the long and painful road back. we're talking decades and

speaking with the always interesting, always candid mayor of braddic, pennsylvania, next. it's very important to understand

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i'm bill griffin. we have a lot ahead. coming up, steve ratner tells us why he thinks fears of a china slowdown blown out of proportion and making a bullish case for us on china and who are the real victims if the u.s. falls off the fiscal cliff at the end of the year? the answer may surprise you. is the fed out of bullets coming to fighting out of a recession? noted interest rate watcher jim grant weighs in. all ahead at the top of the hour. we look forward to seeing you from here at the new york stock exchange. but first, a market flash from brian shactman. brian? >> flash gordon music going. thank you, bill. we reported about the positive news of merck. there are tributary impacts and quest diagnostics is one of them. dgx. they have mid to high single digit royalties on future sales

of this drug until 2023. goldman sachs says. hey, bri. >> hey, br 4i. a lot of love here. a wave of cities declaring bankruptcy. that's nothing new here. the residents of braddic, pennsylvania, ten miles outside of pittsburgh is broke for a century and people aren't giving up. what does it look like in a town that's been bankrupt for a while? let's ask the mayor, john federman. welcome to "street signs." a lot of towns out there going bust. maybe not to the extent of your town. what does it look like? what is life like in a bankrupt municipality? >> well, there's a lot of things. i guess you're also referring to scranton and i have actually sat on a panel with mayor dougherty

and we're brothers in the struggle and it means low sal y salaries for the municipal employees. the starting salary for a police officer was $7.87 without benefits and vacation even. it means a very, very bottom line, baseline kind of scraping by and maintaining services as best as you can sigh is there a way to recover out of it? what happened with braddock and the steel mills and looking at scranton where you have had population declines, as well, is there a way to get out of it? >> braddock is what happens when your community is outsourced. we went from 20,000 to 2,300 in the latest census and lost a corresponding number of buildings, too. scranton is much, much further ahead than we are but i think braddock is that cautionary tale

that, you know, unless these cities get the municipal house in order and we, you know, line it up from the federal level all the way down that we -- we're like the ghost of christmas future i think if municipalities can't get it together. >> mayor, i think better for you or worse? >> continuing things are dramatically better. we haven't sustained a homicide in the community in over four years. we have a nice $20 million redevelopment plan to break ground in september to replace the hospital that closed. that -- part of that development includes a new urgent care center for our residents so they'll have access to top-rate medical care and a lot of other projects in town. the levi's partnership and plenty of reasons to be optimistic but a lot of work ahead of us to ever regain the mantle of a fiscally healthy city. >> what services if any have you had to give up? >> oh, well, when i took office we didn't have any playgrounds

open in the community. paying police officers minimum wage, that's shocking but that's the standard, you know, coming in to office so thing that is a lot of communities would take for granted, whether it's street sweeping, whether it's playgrounds, whether it's paying their officers a fair living wage, these are issues that we had to confront and continue to some extent. >> and you have done that. you have led by example, john. that's why -- you have gone out there and got the hands done. worked. the people rallied up. they're doing a lot of this stuff. seems to be a -- i don't want to generalize any town in america moaning and groaning. they aren't doing this for me. we are they. right? what role do the citizens of any of these towns have to play in these situations? what do they need to do to help get things back together instead of just moaning -- not anybody is just moaning but get the hands dirty. >> again, just to demand that level of accountability from your elected officials. you know? the sad part about this fiscal

crisis is that there are solutions to all of these problems. might not necessarily be easy or be 100% politically palatable but the solutions need to be implemented and we need to shore up our manufacturing base in the country business that's what's kind of draining cities and regions like scranton and like western pennsylvania and nobody -- trust me, nobody wants to end up and go through what our community went through over the past 40 years because digging out of the hole is a lot easier than staying out of it. or harder, excuse me. >> i believe you're leading by example, taking a $150 a month salary. are you at the stage where you're like i won't run again? this is too much hard work. >> oh, no. i'm looking forward to it. i'm up for re-election next may and declared i'm running for another term. i had the good fortune of winning nearly three to one margin last time and i hope it doesn't corny to the viewers but i feel like i've got the best

job in the country and, you know, the help we have been getting from whether it's corporations, whether it's from the state, we're really moving the needle in braddock and we have a long way to go to come back from where we were at. >> can you just merge with another town? >> really, we're kind of like the guy or the girl no one wants to take the dance. >> you would like to merge with, you know -- >> turtle creek? >> sure. i would be happy to merge myself out of a job. because i think ultimately that is the right thing but consolidation is difficult politically and braddock, you know from a fiscal standpoint, doesn't have a great deal to offer to a potential merger partner so we have kind of been surviving and bouncing back on our own but at the end of the day a lot of small communities that were justifiable under the population size back in the '50s

and '60s and no longer are need to merge and streamline. >> don't merge with turtle creek. go with rankin or swiss home park. >> we are all part of the valley and region that suffered regionally. >> too smooth. >> merge with melbourne. that's a good town to merge with, i reckon. john, a pleasure to have you on the show because you have a great attitude and we really appreciate your very candid resfonss about what's gong on there. thank you. >> thank you for the platform here and it's a pleasure to always return back to cnbc. >> great. well, the games haven't yet begun but the u.s. olympic team is steeped in controversy. the team will wear red, white and blue uniforms designed by ralph lauren at the opening ceremonies but it turns out the uniforms were made in china. that's made a number of lawmakers very unhappy including senate majority leader harry reid. >> i am so upset that i think

the olympic committee should be ashamed of themselves. i think they should be embarrassed. i think they should take all the uniforms, put them in a big pile and burn them and start all over again. >> some strong words there. in a statement, a u.s. olympic committee spokesman said the team is grateful for the support of the sponsors and did not directly address the chinese issue. ralph lauren also had no comment. >> that's our -- is that a -- those are really the outfits that the athletes wear? >> apparently. >> that's it? that's -- >> berets. feels more french. >> doesn't say -- same colors as france. berets on. what's that, ascot? >> it's stylish and looks european. oh -- not very manly. >> our producer said the female one looks like the american airline stewardess outfelts of the 1960s. when it was elegant. really? those are our outfits?

>> and made in china. >> that's worse. >> that's worse. the markets back in positive territory. that's no controversy. >> but, oh, are territory, and that's no controversy. >> we're coming up with lots, lots more, and find out which state you voted the tops for business. that comes to mind for me is my high school math teacher, dr. gilmore. i mean he could teach. he was there for us, even if we needed him in college. you could call him, you had his phone number. he was just focused on making sure we were gonna be successful. he would never give up on any of us.

fears about the fiscal cliff is haunting investors. so is congress to blame? warren buffet says yes. we have two guests with us now. doug, i will start with you, is america doomed? >> well, i'll defer to our u.s. strategist jeff stot that says they're not going to drive the car over the cliff. there's a lot of flexibility to move out both the spending cuts and the taxation a year or more

potentially. so it's -- it's not really a fiscal cliff. more like a fiscal slope, i guess. >> how do you play it then, how do you recommend your clients up north to play us? >> unfortunately, medium to longer term, we have a fairly bearish view of the oil price which is one of the reasons why the u.s. market has been the place to be and not the canadian market. we were looking for $65 a barrel for oil, so we were bearish. but near-term we think there is a real opportunity for the oil price here. you have gasoline prices that are lower, you have great weather, there should be a pretty good driving season in the u.s., so we would not be surprised to see a short-term rally. >> since we were talking about the oil price, 65 for wti, 85

for present, is that too bearish for you? >> not in the short-run. it is a positive in the short run, but i will take it for what it's worth. it's good for consumer spending. >> you see the possibility of a recession here in the united states next year if the administration does not get it's act into gear. >> i think we're familiar with the numbers that were minus 3.5% gdp. it wipes us out, we're not in a slump, or recession, it's a depression. >> but you know, in temperatures of what we're saying to people, it is a possibility. it's not the most likely thing because i think congress and a president will work things out.

>> at the last minute? >> looks like it. good leadership says i have a problem six months from now, i will work on things today so i can prepare myself. it doesn't appear we're getting anywhere. maybe we are behind the scenes, but out front it doesn't look like a lot of progress. >> are canadian banks still shol lid? >> yes, well capitalized and managed. that's been a real strong area for our market. >> john, doug, great to have you on the show, thank you. >> next, the story that will have you running, not walking, to your grandfather's attic. >> unless your grandfather doesn't have an attic. to get the things you want from a bank,

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and and we leave you with this. here is a way to make a cool couple million. a man found a couple boxes in his grandpa's attic from 1910. they're in pristine condition. the stash could be without up to $3 million. that is not a bad day in grandpa's attic. what was he looking for that he found the cars.